TORONTO — The disgraced former head of Ontario’s troubled air ambulance service should be behind bars, not working in the emergency room of a Thunder Bay hospital, Progressive Conservative critic Frank Klees said Tuesday.

Dr. Chris Mazza was fired as CEO of the Ornge air ambulance service in early 2012 after he set up a complex web of spin-off companies that are still the subject of a special investigation by Ontario Provincial Police.

Klees said he was “shocked” when he got a call saying Mazza was working in the emergency department at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.

“Apart from the obvious irreparable damage that was done to our emergency ambulance service, and the harm that was done to the men and women who were forced to work under this man’s tyranny, he travelled the world in the lap of luxury at taxpayers’ expense,” a fired-up Klees told the legislature.

“He saddled taxpayers with multi-millions of dollars of debt thanks to his mismanagement. He should not be in an emergency ward. He should be in a jail.”

But Health Minister Deb Matthews said hospitals hire doctors independently, and it’s up to the College of Physicians and Surgeons to determine if Mazza is fit to practice.

“I do find it strange that the member opposite is suggesting that we investigate, convict and jail someone,” Matthews told the legislature. “That’s not how we do business on this side of the house.”

Ornge, which gets about $150 million from the province, had been under fire over what opposition critics say are sky-high salaries, financial irregularities and allegations of kickbacks.

Mazza is under criminal investigation by the OPP, faces another probe by the College of Physicians and Surgeons for “his unethical conduct,” and pleaded mental incapacity when called to testify before a legislative committee last year, Klees said.

“Front-line staff and patients were put at risk as a direct result of his gross mismanagement and fraudulent schemes and self-aggrandizement,” he told the legislature.

“How can the minister justify this offensive disrespect for the front-line staff at Ornge, for the patients whose lives were put at risk and for the taxpayers of this province who were ripped off for millions as a result of his mismanagement?”

Matthews later told reporters she was caught off guard by news Mazza had been hired by the hospital in Thunder Bay.

“I was surprised when I heard, but that is a decision of the hospital,” she said.

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre recently lost six full-time doctors and hired Mazza to fill-in in the emergency department.

“No hospital in this province should be in such desperate need to hire Dr. Chris Mazza to work in their emergency ward,” said Klees.

‘No hospital in this province should be in such desperate need to hire Dr. Chris Mazza’

Mazza’s $1.4 million a year salary and that of other executives at Ornge weren’t disclosed on the annual sunshine list of public sector workers making over $100,000 a year.

He also demanded — and received — hundreds of thousands of dollars for being a medical director of Ornge, and was given loans totalling $1.2 million in a single year.

Ornge is still trying to recover some of that money, but Matthews wouldn’t comment on whether or not the province could try to take it off his paycheque from the Thunder Bay hospital.

“That is an issue before the courts,” said Matthews. “I understand he has counter-sued.”

Mazza was an emergency room specialist when he founded Ornge in 2005 as a new way to deliver air ambulance services in Ontario.

He has argued the health ministry knew about the changes he was making at Ornge and never told him he had veered off course.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/07/15/ornge-2/feed/1stdOntario’s chief coroner says operational issues at the province’s troubled air ambulance service contributed to the deaths of as many as eight patientsToday's letters: Ontario and the feds lead the pack — for incompetencehttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/17/todays-letters-ontario-and-the-federal-government-lead-the-pack-for-incompetence/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/17/todays-letters-ontario-and-the-federal-government-lead-the-pack-for-incompetence/#commentsMon, 17 Dec 2012 11:00:25 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=101120

Last week, letters editor Paul Russell asked readers: ‘Provincially or federally, What was the biggest screwup or success in the last year by our governments?’ Only one reader responded with a success story — with lots of complaints being sent in.

‘Billion Dollar Screwup Award’ for Ont. Premier

Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals earned the “Billion Dollar Screwup Award”.
The Green Energy Act guarantees high electrical costs; forever. The cancellation of the gas-fired plant in Mississauga cost a cool billion. Add another billion for the eHealth Ontario disaster and another billion for the Ornge fiasco. Add the loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs. Then prorogue the Legislature. Goodbye, Mr. McGuinty. Pick up your pension cheque on the way out.Mel Rosenblatt, Toronto.

Seventy-five words is more than generous when two would do: Dalton McGuinty.Bernard Williams, Kingston, Ont.

Oh please! Dalton McGuinty is the winner by virtue of his mismanagement and squandering of taxpayer dollars. The failures of eHealth, green energy programs, Ornge and ignoring the advice of don drummond are but a few examples of his lack of stewardship. When things got too uncomfortable for McGuinty to face he had the audacity to prorogue legislature. Since then he continues to fail Ontarians by his blatant untruths regarding the reasons for the teachers’ work to rule.Harry and Mary Ann Hocquard, Kettleby, Ont.

Two cancelled power plants. Another example of McGuinty’s complete disaster on power generation, lead by the ill-advised, naive Green Energy Act to save the world for Gore/Suzuki types. The GEA seems developed by misguided simpletons and akin to the quality of a high school project. Many industry types knew the two locations were unwise; a new facility should be on the former Lakeview G.S. site. Ontario needs an energy moratorium on all projects including plans for OPG coal, nuclear and hydro facilities.Lyle McQueen, Mississauga, Ont.

The biggest screw-up by any government this year has to be the asinine closing of the two gas plants in Ontario by the McGuinty Liberals, all for the sake of trying to retain a couple of seats. But than again those political rapscallions would fill the top 10.Steve Flanagan, Ottawa.

Feds stance on Israel wins praise

Biggest success? The federal government’s decision to vote against the UN resolution giving non-member observer state status to a Palestinian organization dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel. A rare display of moral fortitude in an increasingly anti-Semitic world. Biggest screwup? Dalton McGuinty’s cancellation of two gas power plants to save electoral seats, followed by his resignation and proroguing of the legislature to halt enquiries.Brian Summers, Richmond, B.C.

Quebec wrong about education and cigarettes

For screwup of the year, I choose the Quebec Court of Appeal’s recent ruling that denies Loyola Catholic High School’s the right to teach morals and religion from a Catholic perspective. Forcing the school to adopt the government’s secular perspective, embodied in its mandatory ethics and religious culture program, is a gross violation of institutional religious liberty. The implications are grave for the entire nation.Lars Troide, Apple Hill, Ont.

The biggest mistake of the PQ government this year was the increase of taxes on alcohol and tobacco. People protested in the streets and bar owners complained. If the PQ government wants to gain in popularity, it should rescind the tax increase and drastically reduce the price of tobacco by about 50 percent.Alex Sotto, Montreal.

The biggest screwup of the PQ government involves matters in the public education sector. It’s not bad enough the education minister suggested there be less teaching of English in French elementary schools, and more learning of the sovereignty movement in high schools, she extended the mandate of school commissioners (trustees) for another two years. Fortunately, there is a government-in-waiting, the Coalition Avenir Québec, that would ditch those silly notions and elected school boards to boot.Chris Eustace, Montreal.

Feds messed up on many files

Despite a great deal of competition for the honour?, I believe the ongoing debate and lack of final judgement about the F-35 gets my vote. It was handled poorly at the start and shows no signs of a resolution. My opinion is that, as our air force seems to be dedicated to national defence rather than offence, the purchase would be superfluous because, if Canada were attacked, the Yanks and their 2,500 F-35s would be in our airspace immediately. Purely selfish reasons of course.Robert McLachlan, St. Catharines, Ont.

If you’re a polar bear, a caribou or an iceberg, you can’t be happy with Stephen Harper’s “oil for the lamps of China” decision. Someone ought to tell Harper that CNOOC isn’t pronounced “chinook.” But how do you say ‘fracking’ in Mandarin?Ron Charach, Toronto.

Ottawa allowing China to get their hooks into North Sea oil properties, where there is a dangerous prospect of Chinese control over World oil prices. Western oil was icing on the cake; North Sea oil was their prime objective.Graham Smith, Merrickville, Ont.

The last year in the political battlefield, for that is what it has become, was a débâcle of hidden agendas’ counterminding the ideology of democracy. From the cost of the F-35 purchase to the robocall scandal and the multitude of other stories that are bound to come to light in the coming months, I’m sure many will agree that the most egregious act by the government of Canada was destroying our image as a peacekeeping nation.Morgan Burchell, Castor, Atla.

Since our leaders have adamantly refused to stop the annual elimination of over 106,000 Canadian children and have refused to even discuss the subject matter just when is it that the living being in the womb becomes a human being, the only conclusion that God-fearing people can come to is that these sins of omission are not simply blunders by our leaders, but crimes against humanity.John Stefan Obeda, London, Ont.

The biggest screw-up is the missed opportunities of the Harper government. There are still unhappy aboriginals and the nanny state Indian Act; government waste in the equalization formula that reinforces failure in the alleged have not provinces; 355 MPs who have an unclear role with more members added to the roll; income tax deductions galore; generous Employment Insurance benefits that sends recruiters overseas for labour that should be sourced in a community down the road; a military that in peacetime cannot figure out how to buy trucks and airplanes.Mark Soehner, Calgary.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/17/todays-letters-ontario-and-the-federal-government-lead-the-pack-for-incompetence/feed/0stdMinister of National Defence Peter MacKay checks out the cockpit of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter following an announcement in Ottawa, Friday July 16, 2010.Lawsuit describes former Ornge CEO Chris Mazza as a sexist ‘bully’http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/07/lawsuit-describes-former-ornge-ceo-chris-mazza-as-a-sexist-bully/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/07/lawsuit-describes-former-ornge-ceo-chris-mazza-as-a-sexist-bully/#commentsThu, 08 Nov 2012 04:04:59 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=231058

A former employee of Ornge is suing Ontario’s air ambulance service, saying she was fired for helping to expose alleged wrongdoing. Lisa Kirbie, hired in March 2010 as the director of government and regulatory affairs, also alleges in her lawsuit that former CEO Chris Mazza was volatile, sexist and treated Ornge as his personal “fiefdom.”

“Lisa was sexually harassed, ostracized from her work for being a woman, ostracized from her work for not taking part in criminality and subsequently marginalized and terminated for being a whistleblower,” her lawyer Brian Shiller alleges in the statement of claim.

Kirbie co-operated with an auditor general’s probe of Ornge, gave provincial police information about Ornge as part of their criminal investigation and notified senior Ministry of Health officials about Mazza’s $1.4-million salary, the claim says.

Ornge has come under close scrutiny at Ontario’s legislature, where a committee has heard explosive testimony about an alleged kickback scheme, exorbitant salaries and what one politician called “heavy-duty nepotism.”

In her lawsuit, filed late last month in Ontario Superior Court, Kirbie alleges she was fired in July without cause and is seeking the equivalent of 40 months of pay and benefits and damages of $100,000.

She is claiming some of the damages due to the stigma she says she now faces as an ex-employee of Ornge.

“As a result of the wide-spread notoriety of alleged improprieties at Ornge, Lisa’s future job prospects are poor and she has been left to work as an independent contractor,” her statement says.

Kirbie also alleges she suffered mental distress as a result of sexual harassment and alienation at work.

“Mazza attempted to intimidate her, constantly looked at her in a sexual way, was a bully and treated Lisa as an object rather than as a qualified professional,” the claim alleges.

None of the allegations have been proven in court. Stephen Patterson, Ornge’s general counsel and acting CAO, said in a statement that Ornge doesn’t dispute that Kirbie is owed “compensation for termination without reasonable notice.”

However, Ornge will be disputing the amount in a statement of defence that is expected to be filed in the next few weeks, Patterson said.

Lisa was sexually harassed, ostracized from her work for being a woman, ostracized from her work for not taking part in criminality and … terminated for being a whistleblower

Kirbie was let go because Ornge eliminated the government affairs function, Patterson said. But Kirbie writes in her lawsuit that by the time she was fired she was in a corporate communications role and after she left that position was filled.

Patterson’s statement is careful to distance Ornge from its past regime.

“The current Ornge is committed to being fair to Ms. Kirbie as a former employee of the organization,” Patterson wrote.

“We cannot comment on many of the factual allegations which she has made, as they pre-date the current Ornge leadership.”

Mazza was not available to comment, said his lawyer, who instead offered a statement from Kelly Long, Mazza’s girlfriend and former junior executive at Ornge. The allegations are “without merit and entirely false,” she wrote.

“In his entire career as a physician or CEO, there has never been any evidence or allegations that suggest an incident of sexual impropriety or sexual harassment involving Dr. Mazza,” Long wrote.

Mazza’s lawyer, Roger Yachetti, said the statement of claim “dismally fails to comply with the Rules of Civil Procedure, in a number of ways.” Mazza is not named in the lawsuit as a defendant, but lawyers for Ornge will be asking the court to “strike the improprieties” from the statement of claim, Yachetti said.

Kirbie says she questioned dealings with Italian firm AgustaWestland, which sold 12 helicopters to Ornge. Ornge Global, a for-profit subsidiary controlled by Mazza, also signed a marketing services agreement with AgustaWestland.

Kirbie says she came to believe that the government agency used public money to pay millions extra for the helicopters then drew up a “bogus” contract to kick back funds to Ornge’s for-profit arm.

She says she asked an Ornge Global executive — who was also Mazza’s girlfriend — about it and was told the contract was “a gift.”

Agusta executive Louis Bartolotta has denied any wrongdoing, telling the legislative committee in April that the kickback allegations are “insulting.”

When Mazza testified at the legislative committee he also denied that the Agusta deals were a kickback scheme. He said he didn’t know what went wrong with the troubled air ambulance service, but the government never told him he was veering off course.

After she first became concerned about the AgustaWestland contract, Kirbie alleges Mazza called her into his office to say she shouldn’t be “scared of the Tories” because she was “sleeping with” Warren Kinsella — a prominent Liberal strategist and Kirbie’s partner.

Mazza went on indefinite medical leave Dec. 22, 2011, and never returned to Ornge, but Kirbie alleges before she was let go she was alienated by supervisors and executives who believed she leaked information about Ornge to the media.

Ontario’s auditor general has criticized the governing Liberals for failing to oversee Ornge, despite giving it $730 million over five years and allowing it to borrow another $300 million.

The legislative committee has heard that the government failed to act despite numerous red flags that trouble was brewing at the organization.

Ornge, which receives $150 million a year from the province, is currently under a criminal probe for financial irregularities.

Days after the new president of Ontario’s air ambulance service touted a massive turnaround in the culture at Ornge, front-line staff say little has changed.

It has been almost a year since financial scandal rocked the taxpayer-funded organization, and interim president Ron McKerlie calls Ornge a “vastly different” entity today — one where employees feel comfortable broaching concerns, and where the troubling legacy of disgraced former president Chris Mazza is being erased day by day.

But after Mr. McKerlie delivered those comments to the Economic Club of Canada last week, a number of Ornge staff approached the National Post with a very different view.

“It’s a completely top-down culture. … They listen and listen and listen, but almost nothing changes,” said one Ornge pilot, who, along with several other staffers, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

“All of us are under stress,” the pilot said. “Everybody’s married, their wife’s telling them, ‘you’ve got to get out of that place.’ Their moods are changing.”

Ornge recently made headlines after reports surfaced that its Thunder Bay pilots were grounded for hundreds of hours this summer due to a paramedic shortage. And in August, the air ambulance service faced criticism for suspending whistleblower pilot Bruce Wade over unspecified health and safety concerns.

We run completely short-staffed all the time. We have a group of people working in the [communications centre] who are scheduled now 12 hours, no breaks

One major dispute centres on Ornge’s decision to terminate its contract with Canadian Helicopters Ltd. (CHL), bringing flight operations in house. Though the decision was made before Mr. McKerlie took the helm, it did not fully take effect until this past March. Helicopter pilots enjoyed more generous compensation under CHL’s employ, and Ornge expected to save money on that part of the deal.

But pilots says Ornge is unable to provide the same level of service, with helicopters sitting idle far more often and veteran staff quitting in protest, further damaging service.

Mr. McKerlie suggested those who are complaining about the culture at Ornge represent a fraction of the workforce and may be motivated by a desire to regain their CHL perks.

“The issues that are being raised are being raised by a small group of employees who are former CHL helicopter pilots, who are unhappy with the decision that was made to move the rotor-wing operations from CHL into Ornge,” he said.

Mr. McKerlie declined to comment on any of the specific complaints, saying he did not wish to fight with staff in the media.

But although the CHL dispute appears to be fuelling much of the discontent, employees from other areas of the business have also raised concerns about the work environment at Ornge.

According to one veteran communications centre worker, “constant, chronic downstaffing” pervades all aspects of the organization, from aviation to medicine to dispatch.

“We run completely short-staffed all the time. We have a group of people working in the [communications centre] who are scheduled now 12 hours, no breaks, because that’s how short-staffed we are,” the worker said. “In fact, they have to take a telephone to the bathroom.”

While patient care has remained excellent, the staffer said, it has become more difficult for the air ambulance service to retain top talent.

“They keep promising to bring numbers up, but the reality is they can’t,” added one former Ornge staffer. “They don’t have the money, nor the qualified training infrastructure, nor the right people. Those right people have either been fired or current ones refuse to be a part of it because they don’t believe in the organization.”

The “basic improvements” expected under the new administration have simply not materialized, the communications centre worker added.

“There’s been many times I’ve come home and been like, ‘I’m going to quit tomorrow,’” he said, “because I just can’t take it anymore.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/10/09/despite-new-presidents-claims-ornge-still-plagued-by-problems-top-down-culture-staff/feed/4stdInterim president Ron McKerlie says Ornge is a “vastly different” entity to the one plagued by a financial scandal a year ago.Ornge now ‘a vastly different organization,’ interim president sayshttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/10/02/ornge-now-a-vastly-different-organization-interim-president-says/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/10/02/ornge-now-a-vastly-different-organization-interim-president-says/#commentsTue, 02 Oct 2012 23:35:51 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=217941

Nearly a year after Ontario’s air ambulance service descended into scandal, interim president Ron McKerlie says Ornge has stepped “out of the shadows.”

In a speech to the Economic Club of Canada at the Hyatt Regency Toronto on Tuesday, Mr. McKerlie said while the actions of Ornge’s past leaders severely damaged public trust in the organization, a new culture has since taken root.

“Under our previous leadership, employees were afraid to come forward,” Mr. McKerlie said. “We have since opened up new lines of communication… Ornge is a vastly different organization than it was as little as nine months ago.”

Since late last year, Ornge has grappled with a series of revelations about generous executive perks, chronic understaffing, inadequate equipment and excessive delays. Former president Chris Mazza became a lightning rod for public discontent after news emerged that he collected $1.4-million in compensation — a number initially shielded from public view by the network of for-profit subsidiaries Dr. Mazza helped create.

While Mr. McKerlie’s report acknowledged the shortfalls of Ornge’s past leaders, he spoke primarily about how the organization has changed in the ensuing months, offering a message of thanks to the paramedics who have “gone way above and beyond the call of duty” during the most challenging period in the organization’s history.

Mr. McKerlie also spoke to the inherent difficulty of untangling Ornge’s financial mess.

Darren Calabrese/National PostFormer Ornge CEO, Chris Mazza

“Forensic accountants, auditors and even OPP investigators to this day are still trying to figure it all out, but basically I found out that there were 19 separate legal entities under the Ornge name, and more than 30 bank accounts,” Mr. McKerlie said. The for-profits are in the process of being wound down, he said, noting Ornge has also developed a new whistleblower policy, hired a patient advocate and launched a process to ensure all employees earning more than $100,000 appear on the Sunshine List.

Paramedic Jonathan Lee, who testified before an all-party committee probing the Ornge scandal, says the environment has become “much more paramedic-friendly” since the administration changed. In the past, he said, complaints simply got “lost” in the system.

But Progressive Conservative MPP Frank Klees, who has pushed for Health Minister Deb Matthews to resign over the Ornge saga, said the organization still has a ways to go. The improvement in Ornge is laudable, he said, but with numerous investigations ongoing, it does not give the government a free pass.

“This book is far from closed. There are far too many unanswered questions,” Mr. Klees said. “We can’t allow this to simply go away, because it won’t.”

The province’s auditor general has already questioned Ornge’s business dealings and slammed the government for failing to oversee an organization that received $730 million over five years and borrowed $300 million more.

TORONTO — An all-party probe into Ontario’s Ornge scandal wrapped up its work Thursday, still reeling from explosive testimony about an alleged kickback scheme, exorbitant salaries and what one member called “heavy-duty nepotism” at the troubled air ambulance service.

Staff shortages, delayed responses to save money, poorly designed interiors in brand-new helicopters and a money trail that disappeared in a complex web of for-profit spinoffs were among the litany of problems the legislative committee tried to unravel.

Few witnesses were able to provide answers. Former executives pointed the finger at each other, saying they were just following orders. Senior health bureaucrats shrugged their shoulders when asked how Ornge went off the rails under their watch, even as the red flags piled up.

Health Minister Deb Matthews, under fire for months about another health agency mired in controversy, insisted she was kept in the dark by Ornge until late last year, when the scandal had already hit the front pages.

Aaron Lynett/National PostDeb Matthews, Ontario’s minister of health and long-term care, said it was very unlikely a woman who had relied on the CR machines in the last two years would have an undetected cancer.

There was one consistent refrain from the parade of witnesses who testified: Dr. Chris Mazza, Ornge’s mercurial mastermind, was at the centre of it all.

But the ousted CEO didn’t shed much light on what went wrong during an emotional appearance before the committee after months of silence.

Mazza couldn’t answer some key questions about Ornge’s business dealings, citing gaps in his memory. He refuted allegations that he masterminded a kickback scheme, said he was handed $1.4-million in compensation from the board and that he would have replied “Yes, ma’am” if the minister had asked him to change course.

The committee heard Ornge “encouraged” the hiring of family members, including the chairman’s daughter and Mazza’s girlfriend, Kelly Long — who rose to the rank of junior executive. Even the daughter of Rhoda Beecher, Ornge’s head of human resources, landed a job, but Beecher insisted that all three women underwent a rigorous hiring process.

But the most shocking testimony came this week from former chairman Rainer Beltzner, who said he saw documents showing Ornge paid millions in unnecessary fees to an Italian company that sold it a fleet of new helicopters for $144-million. Shortly after, AgustaWestland signed two contracts with Ornge totalling $6.7-million.

Where that money went is still a mystery.

Provincial police probing “financial irregularities” at Ornge may be able to shed some light. AgustaWestland has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

The province’s auditor general has already detailed Ornge’s questionable business dealings and slammed the government for failing to oversee an organization that received $730-million over five years and borrowed $300-million more.

What started as a plan to consolidate Ontario’s patchwork air ambulance service under one roof and generate revenue to help support it fell far short of its goals, said Conservative Frank Klees. And the man the government handpicked to do the job left behind a mess that’s still being cleaned up.

“A vision turned into a nightmare,” Klees said.

The Ornge debacle is a major embarrassment for the minority Liberals, who are gearing up for two potentially game-changing byelections this fall that could hand them a majority.

The storm swirling around Ornge has even drawn in individuals connected to Canada’s most powerful political players.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff Guy Giorno, former president of the federal Liberal party Alfred Apps and Lynne Golding, who is married to cabinet minister Tony Clement, were among the team of lawyers who provided advice to Ornge.

The work included advising Ornge on setting up the web of for-profit subsidiaries, compensation for its executives and whether the organization needed to disclose Mazza’s sky-high compensation package — all of which have come under fire by the auditor. The firm collected almost $11-million over nine years.

Questions have swirled about unregistered lobbying on Ornge’s behalf. Ontario’s integrity commissioner said Apps engaged in it, but he insists he didn’t.

Peter J. Thompson/National PostRainer Beltzner: shocking testimony

The hearings have flushed out some details about how Ornge operated, said NDP health critic France Gelinas.

“We did get a lot of answers. Did we get them all? No,” she said.

“We’re starting to get a pretty clear picture of the mess that happened there.”

What’s not yet clear is whether the committee will get an opportunity to ask those remaining questions. There’s a possibility of more hearings when the committee re-forms in the fall, but that won’t be decided until the legislative session resumes.

Klees — who wants a public inquiry — has accused the Liberals of trying to shut down the hearings and proceed to writing a report in an effort to avoid further embarrassment. That would also prevent Premier Dalton McGuinty, who is on the witness list, to testify.

“Again I think if we have done anything, we’ve demonstrated that we are just as eager as the opposition to gain a full understanding of what it is that has happened,” McGuinty said Thursday.

The Liberals have asked Ornge for more documents about its deal with Agusta and Mazza’s pay.

Beltzner suggested Mazza may have collected more than $1.4-million last year, citing payments he didn’t know existed until the day after government auditors started combing through Ornge’s books. Top executives went along with it, he said.

“Clearly this may only be the tip of the iceberg so to speak,” Beltzner wrote in an email to the head of the auditing team on Dec. 24, 2011.

TORONTO — Two former senior bureaucrats in Ontario’s health ministry say they have no idea what went wrong at Ornge, adding their voices to a chorus of government officials hard-pressed to pinpoint how the air ambulance service got so out of hand.

For years, whistleblowers, opposition parties and even bureaucrats raised red flags that trouble was brewing at Ornge, which is now under a criminal probe for financial irregularities, a legislative committee has heard.

But no one seems to know why they weren’t acted upon until late last year, when Ontario’s auditor general told Health Minister Deb Matthews that he was being stonewalled by Ornge.

Ron Sapsford, who acted as deputy minister of the health ministry from 2005 — the year Ornge was created — until 2009, said Wednesday that Ornge withheld information that might have raised suspicions.

“Actions were taken that were not revealed, and things were done behind closed doors and difficult to discover and understand,” he said.

“I think if you start there, then the problem becomes: well, how do you catch with that? And I guess in this particular case, it took the provincial auditor’s report to do that.”

Auditor General Jim McCarter has criticized the governing Liberals for failing to oversee Ornge, despite giving it $730 million over five years and allowing it to borrow another $300 million.

Concerns about Ornge were raised last year in a letter by bureaucrats who examined Ornge’s financial statements. The lending of millions of public dollars, the potential transfer of other taxpayer funds outside the province and the purchase of a building that was leased back to the publicly funded organization were some of the issues they highlighted.

Health Minister Deb Matthews testified that the letter, marked “Confidential Advice to Minister” wasn’t meant for her, but senior bureaucrats in her ministry.

McCarter’s report also focused on the complex web of for-profit companies set up by Ornge to generate revenue, many of which were controlled by executives. The committee has heard that public money likely flowed to those companies.

But it’s not unusual for non-profit agencies funded by the government to set up for-profit companies, Sapsford said.

Ontario hospitals also set up for-profit subsidiaries to generate revenue. But taxpayer dollars are not supposed to flow to the for-profit businesses, he said.

Matthews maintains that she didn’t know that anything was wrong at Ornge until late last year, when McCarter told her that Ornge was stonewalling his investigation.

She insists Ornge went rogue, misleading her about its activities and not disclosing key information that would have spurred her to take action sooner to rein it in. Ousted CEO Chris Mazza said the ministry was informed of all the changes he was making at Ornge, but they never told him he was veering off course.

The committee also heard from Hugh MacLeod, a former assistant deputy minister in the health ministry who was part of the initial discussions about consolidating the province’s air ambulance service under one roof.

He said the impetus to get it done as quickly as possible came from Toronto’s 2003 outbreak of SARS, which shone a spotlight on weaknesses in the service that were also highlighted by coroners and the auditor general.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/01/ornge-senior-bureaucrats-say-they-dont-know-what-went-wrong-with-ontarios-troubled-air-ambulance-service/feed/1stdTwo former senior bureaucrats in Ontario’s health ministry say they have no idea what went wrong at Ornge, adding their voices to a chorus of government officials hard-pressed to pinpoint how the air ambulance service got so out of handDeb Matthews dismisses Ornge founder Chris Mazza’s testimony as ‘pure nonsense’http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/31/deb-matthews-dismisses-ornge-founder-chris-mazzas-testimony-as-pure-nonsense/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/31/deb-matthews-dismisses-ornge-founder-chris-mazzas-testimony-as-pure-nonsense/#commentsTue, 31 Jul 2012 16:43:02 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=199299

The disgraced founder of Ontario’s air ambulance service spoke “pure nonsense” when he testified before a legislative committee two weeks ago, Health Minister Deb Matthews asserted Tuesday.

At a combative all-party hearing into the multimillion-dollar scandal that has consumed Ornge for months, Ms. Matthews rejected former chief executive Chris Mazza’s contention that the service was dutifully compliant with ministry requests.

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“I know it’s pure nonsense by the fact that he rejected a request to have his salary publicly disclosed while other senior management voluntarily complied,” Ms. Matthews told the committee. “I know it’s pure nonsense by his stonewalling of the Auditor-General [and] his manipulation of patient transfer numbers in reports to my ministry… It is very clear that the leadership at Ornge hid information from us, fudged information, did not provide us with the information we needed.”

Ms. Matthews also dismissed a suggestion by Dr. Mazza that she had rebuffed his meeting requests, citing two occasions where, to the contrary, he “avoided” meetings with her.

“He refuses to acknowledge that he has done anything wrong,” Ms. Matthews said.

Dr. Mazza — who earned $1.4-million in compensation at Ornge after establishing a network of for-profit subsidiaries that shielded top salaries from public view — has staunchly defended his “vision” for the organization, telling a dramatic committee hearing two weeks ago that he acted in the public’s best interest. The for-profit companies were intended to generate extra health-care dollars, he said, as the air ambulance service struggled with understaffing and delays. Dr. Mazza says the health ministry was on board with the model throughout.

But on Tuesday, Ms. Matthews tore into Ornge’s leadership, citing a “culture of fear and intimidation” during Dr. Mazza’s tenure. That has since changed, she said, pointing to increased oversight measures, more front-line staff and the development of a whistleblower policy.

“As minister, I take my full share of responsibility. I have acted quickly to fix the problems identified,” Ms. Matthews said.

Members of the opposition, who repeated calls for Ms. Matthews to resign, said that was not enough — even as new evidence emerged to cast doubt on the minister’s assertion that she intervened in the Ornge scandal as soon as she could have.

Progressive Conservative MPP Frank Klees tabled a document dated June 2011, months before Ms. Matthews stepped in to dismantle Ornge, which sounded a host of alarm bells about the organization’s finances, including a loan receivable of $4.3-million in 2010-11. “This is a concern as Ornge is not in the business of advancing monies and, these are taxpayer dollars that have been lent,” states the memo, labelled “Confidential Advice to Minister.”

The document, sent by a senior Health Ministry staffer to a handful of bureaucrats, cites concerns about a lack of transparency surrounding Ornge’s for-profit entities, noting: “This could be viewed very negatively by the public if public funds are perceived to have been used to enrich other than the taxpayers of Ontario.”

Even though several of her staff received the memo, Ms. Matthews denied ever having seen it. She played down the significance, noting Mr. Klees brought the document “without context” to further his political agenda.

“Frank Klees on many occasions has dropped information like a big bombshelll, and they fizzle when they actually see the light,” Ms. Matthews told reporters outside the hearing.

Questioned on why the ministry failed to act sooner on other aspects of the Ornge file — including Dr. Mazza’s salary, which was called into question years earlier — Ms. Matthews acknowledged that “with the benefit of hindsight, of course we all would have done things differently.”

The committee, which has sat for about 75 hours and heard from dozens of witnesses, will go on a temporary hiatus after two more days of testimony this week.

Matthews painted a picture of a rogue organization that was stonewalling government officials about a complex web of for-profit spin off companies set up at Ornge.

But Mazza insisted the health ministry always knew about changes he was making and never told him he had veered off course.

The committee also tried to recall Mazza for this week’s sessions, but his doctors have sent a letter saying he is medically unfit to testify.

Two Speaker’s warrants had to be issued to force Mazza’s original appearance, but the committee can’t meet again until the legislature resumes in the fall so he won’t be facing questions this week.

Dr. Mazza — who infamously earned $1.4-million in compensation as Ontario’s taxpayer-funded air ambulance provider struggled with understaffing and delays — staunchly defended his “vision,” saying Ornge was acting in the public interest as it set up a network of for-profit subsidiaries that effectively shielded top salaries from public view. Not only was the Liberal government on board, it hailed the service’s controversial business plan as “great public policy,” Dr. Mazza said.

“These plans were in the public interest and they were fully and regularly disclosed to government and to senior officials in the Ministry of Health,” he testified previously at the all-party committee hearing into the multimillion-dollar scandal that has consumed Ornge for months and prompted a high-level shakeup.

But when he emerged after six hours of grilling about the embattled air ambulance service he once led, Dr. Mazza appeared a stunned and broken man, limping from Queen’s Park as a crush of media cameras zoomed in.

In light of the ministry’s substantial “moral and ethical power” over Ornge, the service would have changed course in the face of opposition, Dr. Mazza said. His requests to meet with Ms. Matthews were rebuffed, he said, by staff who told him the minister was “comfortable” with Ornge’s direction.

When he emerged after six hours of grilling about the embattled air ambulance service he once led, Chris Mazza appeared a stunned and broken man, limping from Queen’s Park as a crush of media cameras zoomed in.

Dr. Mazza — who infamously earned $1.4-million in compensation as Ontario’s taxpayer-funded air ambulance provider struggled with understaffing and delays — staunchly defended his “vision,” saying Ornge was acting in the public interest as it set up a network of for-profit subsidiaries that effectively shielded top salaries from public view. Not only was the Liberal government on board, it hailed the service’s controversial business plan as “great public policy,” Dr. Mazza said.

“These plans were in the public interest and they were fully and regularly disclosed to government and to senior officials in the Ministry of Health,” he testified at Wednesday’s all-party committee hearing into the multimillion-dollar scandal that has consumed Ornge for months and prompted a high-level shakeup.

In light of the ministry’s substantial “moral and ethical power” over Ornge, the service would have changed course in the face of opposition, Dr. Mazza said. His requests to meet with Health Minister Deb Matthews were rebuffed, he said, by staff who told him the minister was “comfortable” with Ornge’s direction.

Darren Calabrese/National PostFormer Ornge CEO Chris Mazza, centre, following a six hour-grilling on July 18, 2012. He appeared a stunned and broken man.

Dr. Mazza told the committee he had become a convenient scapegoat.

“I have been naive in my understanding of how big the bus is that rolled over me,” he said, appearing on the verge of tears.

Since the public dismantling of Ornge, which began last year amid extensive media coverage of the service’s generous executive perks and operational shortfalls, Dr. Mazza says he has struggled with “deep-seated” mental-health issues tied to his 14-year-old son’s death in a 2006 skiing accident. Wednesday marked his first public comments about the Ornge saga, after a previous committee appearance was cancelled for health reasons.

Under Dr. Mazza’s leadership, Ornge, a not-for-profit organization that consumes about $150-million in public funds annually, set up a web of for-profit companies, which Dr. Mazza described as being part of an international expansion venture. He says he planned to repay Ontario taxpayers with a percentage of revenues, but none of that money ever materialized.

Ornge also came under fire for chronic understaffing, excessive delays and an expensive new fleet of helicopters whose cramped interiors have made it difficult for medics to do their jobs. Rumours of kickbacks swirled when one of Ornge’s for-profit entities received a $6.7-million payout for dubious “marketing services” from an Italian helicopter firm that sold Ornge its fleet for close to $150-million, but on Wednesday, Dr. Mazza defended the payment, citing an opportunity for the two companies to work together on foreign ventures.

Darren Calabrese/National PostThe Ornge air ambulance service costs Ontario about $150-million in public funds annually.

Dr. Mazza refused to accept that his $1.4-million compensation was outrageous, and similarly rejected allegations that his overarching vision was misguided.

“I still believe deeply in what we were doing,” Dr. Mazza said. “For me, Ornge was never about personal enrichment or personal gain. It was about the vital and urgent necessity to transform an antiquated and dysfunctional air ambulance system… I feel very badly for the people who have been affected [and] for the vision that could have been beneficial to Ontarians, and was destroyed with little regard for the consequences.”

Dr. Mazza failed to answer a number of questions posed to him by MPPs, saying his memory had been tarnished by “black spots” since his son’s death. Most notably, he said he could not recall specifics about the fluctuations in his salary, which doubled in a few short years. He refused to offer an opinion on whether his $1.4-million compensation package was “greedy” and “excessive,” as Liberal MPP Liz Sandals suggested.

Dr. Mazza also denied pulling strings to secure his girlfriend, Kelly Long, an executive position at Ornge, dismissing one employee’s accusation of nepotism as “very disappointing and somewhat offensive.”

But it was one simple, gentle question from New Democrat MPP France Gelinas that appeared to leave Dr. Mazza speechless. What went wrong at Ornge, she asked?

His work to transform Ontario’s patchwork air ambulance service into a world-class organization wasn’t about personal gain, but a desire to help patients in the wake of his son Joshua’s death in 2006, he said.

“At the outset, and with the benefit of hindsight, I acknowledge that although I may have done things differently, I would have and always have acted with the best interests of the residents of Ontario in mind,” he said with his lawyer by his side.

Mazza said he also feels badly for those who were affected by the controversy, especially those who lost their jobs.

Mazza acknowledged the decision to hide his compensation package from public view may have been “ill-advised.”

“It is my understanding that those decisions were made using data and compared my responsibilities and obligations to other similar companies and their executives,” he said.

“I regret it has been a lightning rod for controversy. … The trouble it has caused is extensive and unfortunate.”

But the government didn’t show any concern about his salary, he testified. Mazza said he didn’t demand the pay increases, saying the decisions were made by Ornge’s board of directors guided by their compensation advisers.

Many of the actions he took as Ornge’s CEO were taken with the full knowledge of the Ontario government, he testified, which gave Ornge hundreds of millions of dollars.

He said he formally met Premier Dalton McGuinty at a fundraiser and talked to him for about 15 minutes about his ideas for Ornge. He said he was introduced by Alfred Apps — a man with strong ties to both the Ontario and federal Liberal parties — who was working as a lawyer for Ornge at the time. Mazza said he couldn’t remember the date of that meeting.

The committee has heard about the personal loans he received from Ornge and his involvement in getting his girlfriend — Kelly Long, a former water-ski instructor — a job at Ornge.

In addition to his generous compensation package, Mazza said he received a $450,000 loan from Ornge due to “difficult housing circumstances.” Mazza said he also received a $200,000 special bonus in 2011 — which was offered by Ornge’s compensation committee — for the work he’d done to date.

He denied that taxpayer dollars were “siphoned” to Ornge’s complicated web of for-profit companies, many of which were controlled by top executives, including Mazza. However, the committee has heard that Ornge, which received about $150 million a year from the government, has no other source of funding.

His lawyer, Roger Yachetti, interjected several times during Mazza’s appearance to object to the pointed questions his client was asked, saying they were unfair and incorrect. At one point, Yachetti leaned over to ask if he was OK.

Mazza avoided journalists and television cameras as he entered the legislature, turning his back to them as he entered an elevator. Asked whether one of the men who accompanied him pushing journalists out the way was hired security, Mazza responded: “He’s my best friend.”

He appeared to be on the verge of tears at times during his testimony, particularly when he was asked by Progressive Conservative Frank Klees about patients who died after Ornge was called to transport them.

The committee has heard numerous stories about people who died while waiting for an air ambulance, about understaffing by Ornge, and about helicopter interiors that were so badly designed paramedics often could not perform CPR on patients.

He insisted everyone at Ornge wanted to help those patients and every death was of great concern to him.

It’s been a long wait to hear Mazza tell his side of the story amid allegations that public money may have been used for personal gain.

Two Speakers’ warrants were issued to compel him to testify, but his appearance was put off because two psychiatrists declared him medically unfit to testify. Mazza took medical leave last December when stories about Ornge’s questionable business deals made headlines.

He denied using his serious emotional problems to avoid testifying before the committee, which tried to get him for weeks.

Many of the witnesses have pointed the finger at Mazza for the controversy that’s created a major embarrassment for the governing Liberals.

Auditor general Jim McCarter has criticized the government for failing to oversee Ornge, despite giving it $730 million over five years and allowing it to borrow another $300 million.

Former Ornge employees have described Mazza as “impressive,” “brilliant” and a “visionary,” but also a tyrant whose volatile temper exploded when they didn’t do what he wanted.

Long wanted to sit alongside Mazza and his lawyer at the committee table, but the request was denied. The room was packed and included members of Mazza’s family.

TORONTO — Major flaws are emerging in what is supposed to be the crown jewel in Ontario’s changing health care system.

Family Health Teams or FHTs, a seven-year-old creation of the Dalton McGuinty government, are widely seen as the best model for family doctors and patients both.

Though they take different forms, they share a common vision — to offer better primary care by having groups of physicians, nurses, nurse-practitioners and other medical professionals work as a team either in one physical location or through a single hub.

And for the most part, the early evidence is that FHTs do result in better outcomes for patients, particularly those with complex medical problems such as diabetes.

The move to FHTs also has seen more than 2.1 million Ontarians who didn’t have a family doctor get one.

Rolled out in five waves starting in 2005, Ontario has poured millions into the teams — $244-million in fiscal 2010-11 and $347-million in fiscal 2011-12 alone — and now has 200 FHTs across the province, serving 2.8 million patients.

Jonathan Daniel/ Getty ImagesReferees try to break up a fight between members of the Chicago Blackhawks and the Phoenix Coyotes following a hit on Marian Hossa of the Blackhawks.

That money doesn’t include salaries paid to physicians, who — under the complex new “alternate funding arrangements” which go hand-in-hand with FHTs — earn about 25% more than their counterparts who work solo and are paid on the old fee-for-service model.

But serious problems at two different FHTs — one of the oldest, a community-led team in Shelburne, north of Toronto, and one of the newest, a physician-led team in the city’s impoverished Jane-Finch area — suggest there may be widespread gaps with oversight and real potential for abuse and even wrongdoing.

“It’s a better [potential] scandal than Air Ornge or eHealth,” says one insider, referring to the province’s beleaguered air ambulance service and well-documented spending spree with electronic health records, “because it’s a systemic problem.”

With at least a couple of FHTs, for instance, Postmedia News has learned that the province has been paying for years for what could be called “ghost” employees, contract health practitioners the FHTs are funded to hire on a part-time basis but haven’t yet been able to find.

And when the FHTs in question told the ministry that, for instance, they hadn’t yet hired the nurse-practitioner or other “allied professional” they were funded for, “they kept sending us the money,” the bewildered source says.

The ministry disputes the term “ghost” employees but acknowledges some funds aren’t spent by FHTs “for a period of time” and defends the practice as giving the teams “the flexibility to hire” whenever they’re able to do so.

At one FHT, when staff reportedly couldn’t persuade bureaucrats to stop sending payments for ghost employees, the FHT banked the money and allegedly gave their regular physicians an unsolicited — and improper, as defined by the FHT-ministry deal — “bonus” at year’s end.

All three troubled areas — Air Ornge, e-Health and FHTs — fall under the ambit of the same government arm, the Ontario ministry of health and long-term care.

Both the Mel Lloyd FHT in Shelburne and the Humber River FHT in northwest Toronto recently have seen clashes between administrators allegedly trying to bring standard governance procedures to the FHT boards, followed by a round of firings and staff or board member resignations.

REUTERS/Zohra BensemraWhen Suzanne Ruta couldn't travel to Algeria for background, she turned to the country's librarians and writers for assistance.

The Mel Lloyd FHT, where board directors have twice resigned en masse and where staff turnover reached 51% last year, now faces two wrongful dismissal suits from a former executive-director and a former administrator.

One of the suits, which seeks $800,000 in damages, alleges some of the doctors had been lured to the FHT by promises they could work part-time hours but be paid full-time.

The FHT is vigorously defending one of the suits, which was filed last December: the $800,000 one was just recently filed. None of the allegations in either suit have been proven.

Alerted to the problems by community members, the ministry called in an audit team from the finance department.

The team presented its report — the focus on management and governance problems — to senior officials in Health Minister Deb Matthews’ office just last month.

Though the report doesn’t deal specifically with the allegations in the lawsuits, auditors found that two board members, including one of the FHT physicians, were in a conflict of interest. “Although the two board members may not gain financial benefit, they will likely gain personal benefit from their involvement,” the report concludes.

The auditors urged the government to strengthen the conflict-of-interest section of the agreements it signs with FHTs.

At Humber River, which is located near the high-needs Jane-Finch community, the executive-director recently was fired after, sources say, she learned that some of the doctors allegedly were seeking cheaper leases for themselves than for other medical professionals at a new satellite site under development.

She also questioned the lack of documentation for payments made to a consultant who was pitching the site.

Armed with a legal opinion letter, which confirmed in stark terms that some of the doctors were proceeding with a deal “that advantaged the physicians over the FHT” and that it appeared the full board had not approved it, the executive-director brought the issue to the board on March 27.

She was fired three days later.

At first blush, even these are significant problems.

Almost half the 200 FHTs, for instance, are physician-led, which means they were established by a Family Health Organization (a FHO) or a Family Health Network (FHN).

Jason Redmond / ReutersSharon and Jack Osbourne

Both are groups of family physicians who band together and who, instead of being paid for each medical service they provide, are paid an annual fee, called a capitation fee, to provide a set list of services for each patient they “enroll.”

According to the latest report by the provincial auditor-general, Ontario has 17 different kinds of such arrangements for family doctors, each with a different payment structure.

For the doctor-led family health teams, it means that only members of the FHOs (that is, the physicians) are voting members of the FHT board.

That inherently puts the physicians, Angie Heydon of the Association of Family Health Care Teams of Ontario acknowledges, in a difficult spot.

“They are by definition conflict-of-interest boards,” she said in a recent interview.

But because of ministry scrutiny — what Heydon calls “line-by-line accounting” and strict reporting — she believes “the risk of misuse of public money is really, really small.”

Yet despite that supposed scrutiny — as Health Minister Matthews says, each FHT is matched to a ministry official responsible for oversight — the auditors at Mel Lloyd found numerous irregularities.

Among them were that the FHT’s financial statements weren’t up to snuff and were submitted late, payroll reports weren’t reviewed and “there were no receipts” for about $5,600 of $7,500 of purchases put on two FHT corporate credit cards.

These were just the purchases the auditors looked at, or “sampled.”

Matthews takes comfort in the fact the government has commissioned the Conference Board of Canada to do an evaluation of the FHTs — now in the third year of a five-year review.

“When we started talking in the 2002-03 elections [about FHTs], we had great dreams and great expectations, that they would keep people out of emergency rooms, keep people healthier,” she says.

“We need to find out [if the FHTs are working] . . . we have a lot more people with family doctors, but we’re also paying a lot more. Are we getting the [patient] outcomes we expected to get?

“We think it’s really important we do a really good evaluation. I think we have to do the evaluation, see what we learn, and put in place real accountability standards.”

Heydon remains concerned with issues of governance and accountability at the FHTs.

Three years ago, when the third wave of teams was being rolled out, the association surveyed its members about just that subject.

The results of the survey, answered anonymously and without identifiers, were unsettling: Asked about conflict of interest, for example, a significant number of respondents replied the matter hadn’t come up or that the board had no policy, while a handful complained that physicians were hard to manage because they “have a pecuniary interest on some of the decisions.”

‘They should not be turning millions of dollars over to people they’ve not vetted. If you’re an embezzler, this is the place to be’

Early last year, the association presented the ministry with a project to deliver a governance program to FHT boards.

Minister Matthews says “yes, absolutely” the ministry is looking at how it can do more to improve FHT governance.

Phil Graham, the ministry’s manager of FHTs, told Postmedia in a phone interview his officials are in regular, even daily, contact with all the FHTs. “I think in the majority of cases, they’re doing great things . . . they’ve really improved the quality of care.”

Instances such as those at Shelburne and Humber River, he says, “are either isolated, or not widespread by any stretch.” He points out that 50 teams are less than a year old, another 50 a little older than that, and says that “building capacity is a process.”

Postmedia has learned the ministry is now trying to retroactively account for some of the money spent (or not spent) by the FHTs for the past six years and has even demanded hefty repayment from some of the teams.

Matthews confirmed that the ministry has “recovered” $121-million back from FHTs where money wasn’t spent appropriately or where the teams weren’t able to hire the staff they were funded to get.

But to some who work within the system, that’s akin to trying to shut the gate long after the horses have bolted.

But, as one source involved with FHTs since their inception says, “Six years later and they’re trying to catch up.”

“They had great intentions with the FHTs. But especially in the early days, they (the ministry) said ‘Look, here’s all this money, go fill up a board, hire some staff, some medical people.’

“It was careless, at the very least.

“They should not be turning millions of dollars over to people they’ve not vetted. If you’re an embezzler, this is the place to be.”

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It shows the Liberal members of the committee aren’t there to get to the bottom of the Ornge scandal, but to defend the government, Klees said.

Earlier Tuesday, Zimmer questioned the Kidd’s commitment to patient safety by not disclosing the names of other potential whistleblowers.

“When you’re faced with this choice between doing what’s best for the air ambulance service and fixing it and getting to the bottom of it, and yet you don’t want to share some of that confidential information and confidential names who might help us with that, and you opt to protect your source,” he said.

“Do you think that’s a bit selfish of you?”

But Kidd, who quit Ornge in 2009, said he didn’t feel he was in a position to reveal the names of people who brought him information despite the risks.

“Some people went against their spouses to provide information because they felt that information needed to get out there. But they knew they were putting their career at risk.”

Kidd said if the government provides real whistleblower protection to Ornge employees, they will come forward without fear of retribution.

“And their careers trump the safety of Ontarians … they’d rather protect their careers than help us root out the causes of difficulties at Ornge?” Zimmer said.

Health Minister Deb Matthews said she didn’t see the exchange and couldn’t comment on it.

Ornge, which is under a criminal probe, has been rocked for months by allegations about questionable business deals, high executive salaries and whether public money was used for personal gain.

Auditor general Jim McCarter has criticized the government for failing to oversee Ornge, despite giving it $730 million over five years and allowing it to borrow another $300 million.

Kidd told the committee that he quit Ornge in disgust after the death of a teenager from northwestern Ontario.

If the girl had any hope of survival, Ornge “robbed” her of that chance by not properly staffing their aircraft or sending them in a timely manner.

He testified that he raised red flags about Ornge with journalists and others, but no one believed him because of Ornge’s “Mother Teresa” image.

Kidd’s father, the mayor of Temiskaming Shores, even talked to former Liberal MPP David Ramsay in 2009 and other officials in the Health Ministry about the problems at Ornge.

Kidd said front-line workers at Ornge are leaving “in droves” because they’re unhappy with how Ornge is run.

His testimony comes in the wake of confidential documents showing the government investigated 26 deaths and 145 incidents involving Ornge since 2007.

Forty of the investigations were opened this year — after the government installed new leadership at Ornge.

In some cases, Ornge wasn’t able to respond to calls because there were no paramedics on duty.

There is an odd parallel in the way Stephen Harper and Dalton McGuinty do business. For two Ontario boys born three years apart and allegedly separated by a chasm of political party beliefs, you get the feeling they watch one another’s slippery moves and mutter, “Jeez, I wish I’d thought of that.”

Harper gets the harsher press, though perhaps only because he has a higher profile and there’s a bigger media crowd in Ottawa, with not much else to do but follow around the prime minister and complain about his choice in socks. McGuinty operates out of the provincial legislature at Queen’s Park, which is sparsely covered and gets most of its ink in the Toronto Star, which desperately wants to be friendly even while breaking stories about the latest Liberal disaster. The Star assumes Stephen Harper is lying any time its sees his lips moving; it gives McGuinty the benefit of the doubt until it can no longer avoid admitting that once again he’s treating the truth with magnificent disdain.

But the longer the two remain on office, the more similar their approach looks. Just a few examples:

• The Harper Tories, as has been well recorded, are under attack for packaging dozens of important changes into the budget bill and demanding MPs pass the whole thing in one go. Similarly, Ontario’s Liberals are engaged in an effort to force a budget through the legislature in the face of concerted complaints it contains a wholesale diminution of environmental laws, hidden in the folds of an omnibus bill. More than 50 environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Canadian Wildlife Federation and the David Suzuki Foundation, have signed a petition accusing McGuinty of “burying changes that weaken protection for our wildlife and ecosystems” in the bill, rather than allow the legislature to debate the alterations individually.

• The federal Tories have been assailed for months over the F-35 mess, accused of misleading the public over the cost of the jets and then trying to shut down the opposition when it demands more information. The amount the government is accused of fudging is $10 billion. In Ontario, the Liberals recently lured a veteran Progressive Conservative into heading the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. It was a deft move because it exploited and embarrassed the opposition (a coup Harper could appreciate) while putting the Liberals in position to win the single seat they need to form a majority, which would enable them to begin treating opponents like mushrooms again. In making the appointment McGuinty somehow forgot to alert Ontarians to a recent report indicating the board has a $14.2 billion unfunded liability that’s been growing steadily through the Liberals eight years in office. While the WSIB is hardly akin to F-35s, the Ontario shortfall is higher and the approach to openness the same: McGuinty’s people hid the number, waited until a quiet Friday afternoon, then distributed a few copies of the report, minus its summary, just as everyone disappeared for the weekend. And while none of the F-35 money has actually been spent, the Ontario shortfall is a real liability that will have to be made up.

• The federal Tories have been heavily criticized for playing dirty pool in the election last May. Imagine someone phoning up people in Guelph and attempting to mislead them about the location of polling booths. The nerve! But Harper’s people are punk amateurs next to the brazenness of McGuinty’s Liberals. Just 11 days before polling day in October, the premier suddenly pulled the plug on a contentious power plant being built in a Toronto suburb, which threatened to lose the Liberals a much-needed seat. Construction was already under way and had been defended repeatedly by the government, but once the party’s interests appeared threatened, the premier reversed himself overnight. The cost is only now becoming known: at least $82 million and probably more. And that doesn’t include another, bigger plant, cancelled a year earlier to save another Liberal seat, the price of which remains unknown. Rather than be up front about the cost, the Liberals stonewalled all inquiries until the information leaked via court documents.

• The Conservatives have been regularly accused of limiting public access to information, refusing, delaying or ignoring requests for data that should be easily and freely available. In similar vein,Ontario’s government recently — and very quietly — altered the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act so that the act “does not apply to records relating to the provision of abortion services.” You want figures on abortions? Too bad. Why are the secret? None of your business.

Open, honest, prudent with public funds? The McGuinty Liberals make the Harper Tories look like unschooled rubes when it comes to duping voters, misleading the press and betraying the public trust. The biggest ongoing scandal in the province has nothing to do with robocalls, but involves a mad scheme to turn the air ambulance service into some sort of global conglomerate, into which untold millions in public money was poured while the government ignored warnings, overlooked danger signals and evaded responsibility, until the whole ugly mess was revealed via employee leaks and opposition investigations. Then it did its best to keep more details from reaching public ears, even though documents suggested McGuinty was aware a storm was brewing as long as eight years ago.

At a recent Liberal confab in Ottawa, the Ontario premier gave a speech and was greeted enthusiastically. There was talk he should seek the federal leadership. But he demurred, claiming his heart belongs to Ontario. The real reason might be that you can get away with a lot more in provincial politics. There are too many people, paying way to much attention, in Ottawa. If the same stuff happens at Queen’s Park, no one seems to care.

The ousted CEO of Ontario’s troubled air ambulance service, Ornge, and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty may appear in front of a legislative committee investigating allegations of financial irregularities.

Ornge has been mired in controversy for months over high salaries, questionable business deals and allegations that public dollars may have been used for personal gain.

Former CEO Chris Mazza may appear before the criminal probe on July 18, said NDP health critic France Gelinas.

Tory critic Frank Klees, who sits on the committee, said he will put forward a motion to haul in the premier to testify.

Mr. McGuinty has “refused” to answer most questions about Ornge in recent months.
The Canadian Press

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The government’s role in Ornge and the amount of control it had over the organization wasn’t “sufficiently addressed,” health ministry lawyer Mel Springman warned in the letter.

“I continue to have serious concerns respecting the tone and substance” of the proposal, he wrote.

Whatever one may think of the final recommendation to cabinet on the air ambulance reform, “the various incarnations of that document have consistently stood on rather flimsy, indeed sometimes misleading grounds,” Springman wrote.

But Smitherman notes that another branch of the health ministry disagreed with Springman’s opinion.

Nathan Denette/National Post Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, right, shares a laugh with George Smitherman during the Speech from the Throne on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 at the Legislative Chamber at Queen's Park in Toronto.

In a Nov. 1, 2004 letter to a senior health bureaucrat, Malcolm Bates, director of the emergency health services branch, said some of Springman’s comments were “factually incorrect.”

They included Springman’s assertion that 40 pages of background information and a 30-page appendix providing a history of Ontario’s air ambulance service is “selective and insufficient,” Bates wrote.

“In EHSB’s opinion these comments are not legal advice, but are business advice with which we disagree,” he wrote.

“The issue of governance and control of the consolidated program is exhaustively reviewed and a sample performance agreement is attached,” Bates wrote.

“The ministry will retain its governance of the program and only a small statutory change to the definitions section of the Ambulance Act is necessary to empower the new non-profit corporation.”

Cabinet approved the agreement and awarded the contract for air ambulance services to a corporation that was later renamed Ornge, after its orange aircraft.

The decision was made after a number of coroner’s reports and the auditor general urged Ontario to fix its patchwork air ambulance delivery.

But in his investigation of Ornge, the province’s auditor general Jim McCarter found the 2005 agreement was inadequate and the ministry failed to follow up on whether Ornge was adequately performing its duties.

Health Minister Deb Matthews blamed the agreement for tying her hands once she found out something had gone wrong at Ornge, preventing her from acting sooner to stop the waste of taxpayer dollars.

Smitherman, who left the health portfolio in 2008 for another cabinet post, testified before a legislative committee that he wasn’t aware anything had gone awry at Ornge until it became front-page news late last year.

The Liberals have since signed a new performance agreement with Ornge and introduced legislation that they say will bring more oversight to the organization, which is under new management.

In his report, McCarter found that Ornge was given $730 million over five years with virtually no government oversight of how the money was spent. It was also allowed to borrow almost $300 million with the province’s blessing.

He also found a “number of examples of questionable business practices” at Ornge, which has been mired in controversy for months over high salaries and allegations that public dollars may have been used for personal gain.

The organization is currently under a criminal probe for “financial irregularities.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/29/dalton-mcguinty-says-he-never-saw-2004-memo-detailing-ornge-warnings/feed/3stdA handout photo of an Ornge AW139 helicopter used for air ambulance service in Ontario. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, right, shares a laugh with George Smitherman during the Speech from the Throne on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 at the Legislative Chamber at Queen's Park in Toronto.